Our Recent Accomplishments

Howie, Sacks & Henry lawyers are committed to achieving outstanding results for our clients while also supporting legal associations and community groups that provide invaluable resources to our clients and the rehabilitation community at large.

In spite of the ongoing challenges facing our communities and our firm as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are proud that every member of the HSH team has responded with positivity, creativity, and an unwavering commitment to provide the highest level of service to our clients and their families.

Whether we are helping vulnerable accident victims to obtain the compensation they need to rebuild their lives, or devoting volunteer hours to championing social justice causes, we are driven to make a difference in the lives of our clients, their families and our shared communities. Some highlights of our recent activities include:

Recent successful outcomes*

• Paul Miller was a member of a co-counsel team that negotiated a settlement of the proposed data breach class action against CarePartners. If the terms are approved, CarePartners has agreed to pay between $2.44-$3.44 million (depending upon the number of affected Class Members) to fully and finally settle the action.
• Adam Wagman and Joel Dick successfully argued that our client’s ATV collision was in fact a motor vehicle “accident” as defined by the legislation. As a result, the client is entitled to receive Catastrophic Statutory Accident Benefits of over $1 million.
• Valérie Lord successfully represented the interests of our client, Jane Doe, as a proposed intervenor in a class action commenced against Ukraine International Airlines, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard. As a result of our intervention, the judge made several important decisions respecting notice and opt-out procedures that will protect our clients and ensure that they do not become entangled with the claims against the Iranian government and military.
• Neil Sacks won a significant trial decision for his client, a dentist whose career was cut short by a negligent eye surgeon.
• Our lawyers settled a Canada-wide class action litigation against the makers of potentially fatally-defective implantable defibrillator products.
• A jury awarded Melissa Miller’s client almost 20 years of disability benefits that were improperly denied by State Farm, along with substantial interest awarded by the trial judge, amounting to more than $1 million in total.
• A recent Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal (WSIAT) decision affirmed that Melissa Miller’s client has the right to sue the owners and managers of the apartment building where she lived for injuries sustained in a slip and fall accident despite the fact that she was also employed by them. 
• Melissa Miller also successfully represented a client who was injured in New Jersey by a defective piece of industrial equipment that was built by a Canadian company; the judge denied the Canadian firm’s request to have the claims dismissed. 
• Melissa Miller successfully resolved a group of American and Canadian cases arising from a January 2017 shooting incident at the BPM music festival in Playa del Carmen.

Recently-initiated lawsuits

• HSH and two other firms have filed a proposed class action on behalf of young gymnasts who claim that they were emotionally, physically and/or sexually abused while participating in programs and events organized by Gymnastics Canada, Provincial Member Organizations or Member Clubs.
• After a highly-contentious certification hearing, our class action lawsuit has been certified against a prominent Toronto plastic surgeon (the self-styled “Dr.6ix”) who had an elaborate system of video surveillance cameras that captured videos of his patients in his offices in various stages of undress without their knowledge or consent.
• We have filed suit against two psychiatrists who subjected patients to unspeakable psychological experiments while practising at the Oak Ridge and St. Thomas mental health hospitals.
• We are representing hundreds of families who lost loved ones prior to the pandemic due to nursing home negligence as well as those who suffered as a result of COVID-19 outbreaks in long-term care homes.
• HSH has been retained on behalf of 22 passenger claims and associated family members as a result of the downing of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 by the Iranian Regime.
• We are representing the family of a Canadian victim of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 who perished when her Boeing 737 MAX 8 plane crashed minutes after takeoff.
• We are representing more than 100 women who have experienced severe adverse reactions related to the use of Essure contraceptive devices in their mass tort lawsuit against Bayer Inc.
• We are representing Canadian diplomats, and their families, who were attacked and went on to suffer from Havana Syndrome while representing Canada in Cuba.
• We are representing over 2,000 Canadian veterans who experienced life-altering side effects after taking the anti-malarial drug, Mefloquine.
• HSH is co-lead counsel in a national class action on behalf of provincial, territorial, and federal governments to recover opioid crisis-related healthcare costs.

Community engagement

• Samantha Shatz has joined the Brain Injury Society of Toronto (BIST) Board of Directors.
• Valérie Lord appeared as a cast member in The Lawyer Show, a virtual production that raised funds for Nightwood Theatre, one of Canada’s leading women-led arts organizations.
• Valérie Lord was voted in as a Member-at-Large for the Ontario Bar Association’s Class Actions Law Executive for the second consecutive year.
• Melissa Miller, Daniel Fisher and Tania Harris have been appointed to leadership positions with the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association (OTLA).
• Melissa Miller co-founded the grassroots advocacy group Canadians4LTC (C4LTC) which has been campaigning across the country for improved living and working conditions in long-term care homes.
• Kaitlyn MacDonell has been appointed as President of the Brain Injury Association Peterborough Region.
• Sandra Train assembled volunteers to make and donate masks, hand sanitizer and face shields to a local community living facility, and she also supported our four-legged friends by delivering over 2,000 lbs of donated dog food to an animal rescue organization during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• We funded the purchase and donation of a set of iPads to the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute’s Lakeside Centre to help ensure that patients undergoing therapy at the facility can stay in touch with friends and family during the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions.
• We co-hosted Creative Counsel, a silent auction of art and photography created by high-profile lawyers that raised more than $15,000 for the Lawyers Feed the Hungry program, in addition to our long-standing support for the program.
• We continue to support our friends and colleagues in the brain injury community by donating funds, sponsoring virtual events and volunteering our time to groups such as the Brain Injury Society of Toronto, Toronto ABI Network, Brain Injury Association of Peel and Halton, Brain Injury Association Peterborough Region, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, and more.

Industry accolades

• Melissa Miller has been selected as the winner of the 2022 Ontario Bar Association (OBA) Award for Excellence in Elder Law.
• We are proud to be named, once again, as one of Canada’s top personal injury boutique law firms, by Canadian Lawyer.
• We have been listed as a leading personal injury law firm in The Globe and Mail’s inaugural list of Canada’s Best Law Firms 2022.
• Eleven of our partners have been recognized in the 2022 edition of The Best Lawyers in Canada^TM.
• Adam Wagman has been named the Best Lawyers 2022 Personal Injury Litigation “Lawyer of the Year” in Toronto. 
• Melissa Miller has been recognized as a 2021 Lexpert Rising Stars: Leading Lawyers Under 40 award winner.
• Kaitlyn MacDonell has been awarded the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association (OTLA) 2021 Martin Wunder, Q.C. Outstanding New Lawyer Award.
• Melissa Miller has been awarded the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association (OTLA) 2021 Distinguished Service Award.
• Nine of our partners were recognized as leading lawyers in the 2022 edition of the Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory.
• Melissa Miller has been recognized as a 2021 Canadian Law Awards Excellence Awardee.
• HSH received a Canadian Boutique Law Firm of the Year Excellence Award at the first annual Canadian Law Awards.

* Past results are not necessarily indicative of future results and the amount recovered and other litigation outcomes will vary according to the facts in individual cases.